


and all that we’ve been through

by zozo



Series: Here Comes the First Day [19]
Category: She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (2018)
Genre: Attraction, Dream Sex, F/F, Fantasizing, Fluff without Plot, Late Night Conversations, Mildly Spicy Fluff, Other, Other Ships Not Mentioned in Tags, Polyamory
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-16
Updated: 2020-06-16
Packaged: 2021-03-04 07:06:57
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,349
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24759790
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/zozo/pseuds/zozo
Summary: Adora was Catra’s first, and Catra was Adora’s. That doesn’t mean there weren’t temptations along the way.
Relationships: Adora (She-Ra)/Other(s), Adora/Catra (She-Ra), Adora/Catra/Glimmer (She-Ra), Catra (She-Ra)/Other(s)
Series: Here Comes the First Day [19]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1755943
Comments: 36
Kudos: 206
Collections: the corners of today





	and all that we’ve been through

Catra dreams of the Fright Zone.

But it’s not a nightmare. She’s just sitting alone in the office she shared with all the other Force Captains, going over battle plans for some conquest or another of Hordak’s. It’s not the deafening roar and acrid stench of combat—it’s just paperwork. The tiny corner of her mind that knows she’s dreaming is practically bored.

When she hears the door open behind her, Catra immediately thinks—hopes—it’s Scorpia. But wait, hasn’t Scorpia left the Horde? Or did that happen later? But her sudden confusion of past and future gives way to a much different set of emotions when she hears the first footstep into the room. It’s not Scorpia’s heavy, friendly tread at all. These feet step lightly, deliberately—and in heeled boots.

“Hey there, kitten,” Double Trouble purrs.

It takes a massive exertion of Catra’s will to keep herself from frizzing up all over. Her reaction to that voice starts at the tips of her fur, but it slithers down to her core. _Double Trouble’s a traitor,_ something in her remembers. _Aren’t they? Has that happened yet?_ They sold her out—or will sell her out—to the princesses… but maybe that’s okay. Doesn’t she like the princesses? Some of them, anyway? And there’s another reason she shouldn’t want Double Trouble around, but the memory doesn’t want to resolve.

Catra doesn’t look up from her battlefield schematics as those heeled boots slowly tap-tap-tap their way closer. Then the door slides shut—automatically, it’s on a timer—and she almost tears a muscle with the effort it takes not to jump at the sudden hydraulic hiss. And now they’re alone together. That’s fine. She’s been alone with Double Trouble plenty of times.

She feels long, slender fingers come to rest gently, one at a time, on her left shoulder. She expects to feel Double Trouble’s other hand on her other shoulder, but instead they lean all the way down and rest their chin there instead.

“It’s late,” Double Trouble says, with just the tiniest hint of a pout. Catra can feel the vibration of their voice travel all throughout her body. “And we both know, don’t we: all work and no play makes Catra a _very_ cranky kitty. Shouldn’t you be in bed?” The way they pop the “b” in “bed” makes Catra’s stomach twist with nervous lust.

 _Double Trouble never came onto me like this,_ says the last rational scrap of Catra’s sleeping mind. _They just acted flirty to keep me off balance. Right?_ But that was the past—and/or maybe the future—and whatever this is, it’s happening right now. The hand on her shoulder moves just enough to trail a finger up and down the side of Catra’s neck. She manages to suppress about 80% of the resulting shiver. Then cool, dry lips brush against her earlobe. “You need to take care of yourself, kitten,” Double Trouble breathes, “unless you need somebody… to take care of you.” Catra feels something brush lightly across her lap. She’s pretty sure it was the tip of their tail.

The hand on her shoulder moves again, sliding down this time, those long fingers just barely brushing over the uniform fabric covering her left breast. This time Catra can barely manage to keep breathing at all, let alone stifle the moan that wrestles its way out of her. She feels their other hand at her waist for a second, and then they lay their palm flat on her lower stomach and just… leave it there. She can’t look down—she won’t, it would be an implicit surrender—but the feathery teasing touches in her lap are back, and both of Double Trouble’s hands are accounted for, so that _has_ to be their tail…

* * *

When Adora wakes up in the middle of the night, bladder uncomfortably full, Catra’s sleeping so soundly she doesn’t even twitch when Adora carefully extracts herself from bed to use the washroom. She’s only gone a couple of minutes, but when she comes back, Catra’s breathing has changed, she’s shifting restlessly, and as Adora slips back under the covers behind her, she hears what sounds like a whimper. _Is she having a nightmare?_ Adora thinks, but the next sound Catra makes doesn’t sound distressed. It doesn’t sound distressed at all.

 _Oh._ The frisson that runs through Adora is predictable, maybe, but also welcome. She’s watching Catra have a sexy dream. She remembers the night Glimmer and Catra woke her up—apparently after Glimmer had been sleep-touching Catra? Adora snuggles closer, making sure she’s in range, just in case there’s any more of that on the menu.

But Catra doesn’t reach out for her; Catra just rocks back and forth a little, and moans again, and then inhales so sharply she wakes herself up. She looks around wildly for a moment, then seems to realize where she is, and then she notices Adora watching her in the dim late light.

“H-hey, Adora.” Catra’s half-awake voice scrapes appealingly over the vowels. “Were you watching me sleep, you weirdo?”

“Mayyybe,” Adora demurs. “It looked like you were having quite the dream.”

Even in the almost-dark, she can see Catra’s eyes widen and the tips of her ears turn red. “I, uh… um. Sure. I guess.”

Adora waggles her eyebrows. “Was it about me?” When Catra looks away bashfully, Adora’s eyebrows just rise. “Oooh. Was it about Glimmer, then? No? Should I keep guessing? Hmmm… oh! Obviously the bartender from—”

“Stop,” Catra says, and it’s her soft middle-of-the-night voice; she raises a hand for emphasis instead. “It was kind of weird. I don’t…”

Adora caresses her cheek. “Sorry. You don’t have to tell me, I’m just teasing. They’re your dreams; they can be private if you want them to be.”

Catra blinks, and smiles at her, and leans up for a quick kiss. Then she lays back down, covers her face with a hand, and sighs.

“I was, uh… I was kind of having a sex dream… about Double Trouble.”

She can feel Adora rock back a little with surprise, but she doesn’t say anything. Catra opens her fingers a little and peeks through. Adora’s eyebrows are halfway to her hairline.

“What,” Catra says. “You asked. It was a dream, I didn’t _pick_ it.”

Adora reaches out and squeezes her shoulder. “Hey. It’s fine. Dreams are dreams. And, you know…” Catra tilts her head. She doesn’t know, actually. “Double Trouble is… kinda pretty hot,” Adora finishes, a little sheepishly.

Now it’s Catra’s turn to raise her eyebrows. “Wait, seriously?”

“What!” says Adora. “I’m not saying they’re a good person. Or that I’d want to, like, go on a romantic picnic with them.” She shrugs. “But I’m not blind, either. They’re… you know, they’re sexy. I don’t blame you.” Catra just blinks. Adora smiles at her. “So you two… I mean, did you ever…?”

Catra’s eyes go very wide, and for a second she doesn’t manage to keep her voice down. “No!” After a couple of deep breaths, she continues at her previous volume. “No, we never. You—you know you were my first. And I was… I mean, I was paying them, to spy for the Horde and whatever. That… it would have been weird.”

She looks at the expression on Adora’s face. Her stomach sinks slightly as she recognizes it. “Adora, please tell me you’re not imagining what I think you’re imagining.” The dark room can’t hide the extent of her girlfriend’s blush. “ _Adora._ ”

“What! I can’t help it! My brain just comes up with these things! It’s not like I woke up and decided, ‘Hey, I’m going to think about my girlfriend and a sexy mercenary in shower stall 14-B together.’”

“Fourt—” Catra punches Adora in the arm, not gently. “First of all, I said we never, and that includes in or out of 14-B. Second, how do you even know about that place? I thought you didn’t—”

Adora tries for a flirty smile, but deflates almost immediately. “I didn’t, of course I didn’t. I… overheard Lonnie talk about it once.”

Catra gasps. Even after all this time, Fright Zone gossip has a magnetic pull. “Lonnie?! With _who_.”

“Um… Bex? Did you not know about that? Those two weren’t exactly subtle. I mean, _I_ found out…”

But Catra just shakes her head slowly. “That one missed me. Huh. Bex. Good for Lonnie.” Then she blinks hard like she’s pressing a mental reset button. “Can we go back to you imagining _me and Double Trouble_ , though? Are you for real?”

“Actually,” Adora says, biting her lower lip, “now I’m imagining you and _me_ in shower stall 14-B.”

That’s— _that’s better_ , Catra thinks. _That’s definitely better._ It’s not the megaton WTF explosion of Adora’s last mental picture, though this one has a bittersweet edge: she and Adora never did, either. Not back in the Horde. They could have, and they could have gotten away with it, but they didn’t even try. The missed opportunities, the wasted time—it all sends a pang through Catra’s heart if she thinks about it for too long. She tries to bring herself back to the present moment, where Adora’s here with her, where they can do anything they want with each other now.

Then Adora giggles and scrunches up her nose. “Actually, sorry, but… now I’m kind of imagining Lonnie and Bex.”

It pops into Catra’s mind too, like a computer screen powering on. Lonnie, short and stocky, her broad build almost as familiar to Catra as Adora’s. And Bex, a slightly older cadet from another squadron, dangerous and quick, tall but willowy, almost slight—unless you were changing next to her in the locker room and could see all the long, lithe musculature she hid under her uniform. The contrast of their bodies together, Lonnie’s dark brown skin against Bex’s ruddy ochre complexion—it’s such an appealing image Catra’s a little annoyed she didn’t learn about it sooner.

“You _are_ a weirdo,” she says to Adora fondly. “You’re _such_ a weirdo.”

Adora giggles again. It melts Catra’s heart just as thoroughly as the last time, as every time. “Yeah,” she admits, “but I’m _your_ weirdo.”

“Yeah you are,” Catra says, and kisses her. They’re lying on their sides now, face-to-face. “You know you were my first,” she says again, a hint of uncertainty creeping into her voice.

“I know,” says Adora. “I just… I guess it’s kind of silly. I just want to know… everything. Everything about you.”

Catra scoffs, but she smiles too. “You do know everything about me.”

Adora looks sad, though. She sighs. “Not everything. I missed three whole years of your life.”

“Oh,” Catra says. “I mean… you didn’t miss much. They kinda sucked.” But now she’s thinking about it. She missed three years of Adora’s life, too. And she knows, she knows now, that Adora spent those three years wishing Catra were with her—but she also knows those three years were a lot happier for Adora than they were for Catra herself.

Adora’s frowning, so Catra leans forward to smooth out the crease in her brow with another kiss. “I was your first too,” she says, and it doesn’t come out like a question, but it doesn’t have the surety of a statement, either. “You really never…?”

Adora shakes her head. “Nope. I was… I had a lot on my mind.” She smiles ruefully. “Mostly you.”

Catra’s never going to get used to hearing that. But now she knows what Adora meant before, about wanting to know—she believes Adora, she knows there was no one else, but three years is a long time…

“Ever get close?” Catra asks. Adora regards her cautiously for a second, but there’s no jealousy or pain on Catra’s face, only curiosity—that is, until she winks. “Not even sleepover smooches with Sparkles?” Adora _reacts_ to that, and Catra feels a little stab of triumph: they hadn’t, but Adora had definitely thought about it.

She shakes her head, though, once she’s composed herself. “No. I definitely—there was a little crush there, for sure, but… I never, never even considered acting on it. Not until, you know… much more recently.” Catra laughs.

“And, uh…” Now Adora won’t meet Catra’s eyes at all. This should be juicy. “When, um, when we were in the Crimson Waste? Me and Glimmer and Bow? I sort of thought… maybe something might happen with, um, Huntara. But it didn’t. Which is for the best. But that… that was the closest I ever got.”

Catra feels like she’s hit the jackpot. She tries to keep too much obvious delight out of her voice. “Huntara, hmm? Very interesting, Adora. Very, very interesting. And how very… _you_ of you.”

“Oh my gods,” Adora says, voice barely more than a shy little squeak. “Why did I tell you that.”

“Hey, I’ve met Huntara. I’m not saying you don’t have taste. I just think it’s sweet that the closest you got to hooking up with her was ‘I thought something might happen, and then it didn’t.’”

Adora makes an embarrassed little mewling sound and scoots forward, trying to hide her face in the crook of Catra’s shoulder. Catra decides to allow it. “Hey,” she says softly, “Adora. I’m happy I got to be your first. And I’m so happy you were mine. You colossal dumbass.” She presses a kiss just next to Adora’s ear and relishes the way her girlfriend squirms happily in her arms. Adora murmurs something into the side of Catra’s neck—it feels nice, but it’s completely unintelligible. “What was that?” she asks.

Adora lifts her head just far enough to speak without a mouthful of Catra’s fur. “Me too. I’m happy about that too. And… it’s different, and for different reasons, but… I’m happy Glimmer was our second.” She puts a subtle emphasis on _our_ that Catra really likes.

And she hadn’t thought of it that way before, but… “Yeah,” Catra says, smiling as she kisses the top of Adora’s head. “I’m happy about that too.”

**— END OF SEASON 2 —**

**Author's Note:**

> [Season 2 commentary](https://archiveofourown.org/works/24629215/chapters/60043816) is now available.


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